Juvenile Justice Policy and Oversight Committee

The Juvenile Justice Policy and Oversight Committee (JJPOC) was created in 2014 by Public Act 14-217 and is charged with evaluating policies related to the juvenile justice system and the expansion of juvenile jurisdiction to include persons 16 and 17 years of age. The University of New Haven was designated, through legislation, to staff the JJPOC. The Tow Youth Justice Institute (TYJI) of the University of New Haven is responsible for all staffing support activities of the JJPOC.

One of the major accomplishments of the JJPOC was their development of goals in order to meet the statutory mandate assigned to the JJPOC to improve youth justice and child welfare in the state of Connecticut. The three strategic goals to guide juvenile justice reform efforts by mid-2018 are:

Increase diversion of children and youth from juvenile court by 20 percent;

Decrease the number of children and youth confined (incarcerated) in state-run facilities by 30 percent; and

Decrease the rate of recidivism among juvenile offenders by 10 percent

JJPOC Work Groups have been established to identify ways to implement the three strategic goals. In addition, the JJPOC determined that disproportionately minority contact (DMC) must be a priority in each Work Group. The JJPOC also established a Data Interoperability Work Group which will identify data collection, merging, and sharing and analysis issues across agencies in order to improve data capabilities.